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People who like foul-smelling flowers were in luck this week. They had a chance to see and smell the world's smelliest plant, called the corpse flower. A corpse is a dead body. The flower gets its name because it smells like rotting flesh. The bloom attracted thousands of visitors to the Geelong Botanic Garden, just south of Melbourne, Australia. The plant began blooming on Monday. More than five thousand people visited the garden to see it. Some people had to hold their nose when they were near the flower. Others coughed and held their breath because of the foul smell. Australia's Nine News channel reported that visitors described the smell as being like a dead mouse or rotting garbage.
The corpse flower is extremely rare. The plant is native to Indonesia. An international conservation group listed it as an endangered species. The group says there are only a few hundred of the plants left in the wild. A lot of the forest in which the plant grows has been cut down. Corporations are using the land to grow palm oil. The flower is one of the biggest in the world. It can grow to a height of three metres and live over 40 years. However, it blooms just once a decade and opens only for a day or two. The flower smells like the rotting flesh of a dead animal. This smell attracts beetles and flies. The insects pollinate the flower so it can bloom again.
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